Alternatives

Zoho Alternatives in 2026: Official Zoho Campaigns Prices vs ActiveCampaign

Official USD prices for Zoho Campaigns compared with ActiveCampaign and other official email plans, checked on November 14, 2026. Honest that ActiveCampaign is not a full Zoho suite replacement, and that Zoho Campaigns is a different product from Zoho CRM.

By the The Inbox Review editorial team · Updated 9 min read

On this page
  1. The short answer
  2. How we researched this guide
  3. When official Zoho Campaigns still fits
  4. When official ActiveCampaign is a reasonable alternative — and when it is not
  5. Official USD prices at published contact steps
  6. Other official alternatives people compare
  7. What this page will not do
  8. FAQ
  9. Sources and method

The short answer

People look for Zoho alternatives when they want a mid-market email, automation, and CRM path that is not a Zoho Campaigns plan, or when they are comparing official starting prices and free-plan caps. This page compares official Zoho Campaigns prices with official ActiveCampaign and a few other official email plans. It does not treat ActiveCampaign as a replacement for the full Zoho product suite (CRM, Marketing Automation, Zoho One, and the rest).

Prices checked on November 14, 2026 (America/Denver):

  • Zoho Campaigns published Free, Standard, and Professional plans, priced by contact tier, plus official “Yearly − Save 25%” billing. Official Free is up to 2,000 contacts, 2,000 emails a month, a drag-and-drop editor, Gen AI, and 5 users. Official paid plans start from 500 contacts. Official Standard supports up to 100,000 contacts and includes unlimited email sends; official Professional supports up to 500,000 contacts and adds advanced segmentation, advanced workflows, and ecommerce follow-up workflows, among other listed items. Official USD rates from the official pricing file that zoho.com/campaigns/pricing.html loads (campaigns-pricing-val.json): at 500 contacts, Standard $4 a month or $3 yearly-billed; Professional $6 or $4.50. At 1,000 contacts, Standard $7 or $5.25; Professional $12 or $9. A 14-day free trial with no credit card required was advertised. Official copy says SMS and WhatsApp marketing on paid plans require purchased credits.
  • ActiveCampaign published four plans — Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise — with a 1,000-contact minimum and no free plan on the official pricing page. At 1,000 contacts, official USD rates were $19 / $59 / $99 / $179 a month, or $15 / $49 / $79 / $145 a month billed yearly. Official send caps are 10× / 12× / 15× the contact limit. A 14-day trial (no credit card needed) and a 30-day money-back line were advertised. See ActiveCampaign pricing.
  • Other official email starting points we re-checked the same day: Mailchimp Free at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Essentials $13 and Standard $20 at 500 contacts. MailerLite Free at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails; Comfort $12 ($10.80 yearly-billed) at 500 subscribers. GetResponse Starter $19 or $15.58 annually at 1,000 subscribers, with unlimited monthly sends. Brevo Starter $9 a month or $97 a year, from 5,000 emails a month.

Official Zoho Campaigns Standard at 1,000 contacts ($7, or $5.25 yearly-billed) sits well below official ActiveCampaign Starter ($19, or $15 yearly-billed) on the rate card. Those rows still include different official send rules, automation grids, and product scopes. This is a dated comparison of published rate cards, not a hands-on ranking and not a coupon page.

See ActiveCampaign's official plans

Affiliate link: we may earn a commission if you buy through this link. You pay the same price.

How we researched this guide

On November 14, 2026, we opened zoho.com/campaigns/pricing.html. Visible plan names, contact caps, Free-plan limits, the “Yearly − Save 25%” line, trial copy, and the feature compare table come from that page. Official Standard and Professional dollar amounts come from the official pricing JSON that page loads, https://www.zohowebstatic.com/sites/zweb/json/pricing/campaigns-pricing-val.json (the filename is cited on the page as campaigns-pricing-val.json). The public HTML leaves data-price empty until that file loads; we are not inventing prices from a blank slider.

We also opened official Zoho Marketing Automation and Zoho CRM pricing URLs the same day. We did not extract a usable official dollar ladder from those pages in this environment, so this article does not quote Zoho CRM or Zoho Marketing Automation prices.

ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, MailerLite, GetResponse, and Brevo figures come from those vendors' official pricing pages or official catalogs, as cited at the end.

We did not invent prices, testimonials, or a claim that ActiveCampaign replaces Zoho CRM or Zoho One.

When official Zoho Campaigns still fits

Stay, or start, on official Zoho Campaigns when the published limits match the work:

  • You have 2,000 or fewer contacts and 2,000 emails a month is enough: official Free already includes a drag-and-drop editor, Gen AI, and 5 users.
  • You want official Standard at $4 a month ($3 yearly-billed) at 500 contacts, or $7 ($5.25 yearly-billed) at 1,000 contacts, including official unlimited email sends and the official Standard cap of 100,000 contacts.
  • You want official Professional items listed on the compare table (advanced segmentation, advanced workflows, ecommerce follow-up workflows, dynamic content, contact scoring, send-time optimization) at $12 a month ($9 yearly-billed) at 1,000 contacts.
  • You already live in the official Zoho product family (for example, official integrations listed on the Campaigns page include Zoho CRM, Zoho Commerce, and others) and want official Campaigns as the email layer, not a different vendor's CRM grid.

If those official limits are why Zoho Campaigns works, a switch is optional, not required.

When official ActiveCampaign is a reasonable alternative — and when it is not

ActiveCampaign is a reasonable official alternative when you want the documented Plus or Pro grid: landing pages and generative AI on Plus, CRM and SMS add-ons from Plus upward, predictive sending and conditional content on Pro, or a published contact ladder that continues in official Plus/Pro/Enterprise prices. Official ActiveCampaign also advertises a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Confirm live terms.

It is not an automatic upgrade, and it is not an official substitute for the full Zoho suite. Official ActiveCampaign has no free plan on the page we checked, a 1,000-contact minimum, and Starter caps (five automation actions, five lists, 25,000 contacts, two seats maximum, a 10× send cap) that can be tighter than official Zoho Campaigns Standard at a similar list size — while official Standard also costs less at 1,000 contacts. If official Zoho Campaigns Standard already covers you, paying for ActiveCampaign Plus is a choice, not a default.

If what you actually need is Zoho CRM, Zoho Marketing Automation, or a bundled Zoho One-style platform, official ActiveCampaign is the wrong comparison. Those are different official products. We did not extract official dollar figures for them in this environment, and we are not treating ActiveCampaign as a full-suite replacement. A HubSpot-shaped suite comparison, with the same caution, is in ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot.

Official USD prices at published contact steps

ActiveCampaign columns show month-to-month rates, with the yearly-billed monthly equivalent in parentheses. Zoho Campaigns columns use official USD amounts from the official pricing file (monthly, then yearly-billed monthly equivalent). Official Zoho Campaigns Free is shown only in the 2,000-contact neighborhood. Official Standard is blank above 100,000 contacts because that is the official Standard cap. Official ActiveCampaign Starter is blank above 25,000 contacts. There is no official ActiveCampaign 500-contact row.

Contacts Zoho Campaigns Standard Zoho Campaigns Professional AC Starter AC Plus
500 $4 ($3) $6 ($4.50) No official AC tier No official AC tier
1,000 $7 ($5.25) $12 ($9) $19 ($15) $59 ($49)
2,500 $17 ($12.75) $29 ($21.75) $49 ($39) $119 ($95)
5,000 $31 ($23.25) $52 ($39) $99 ($79) $179 ($145)
10,000 $49 ($36.75) $81 ($60.75) $189 ($149) $239 ($189)
25,000 $86 ($64.50) $144 ($108) $489 ($391) $489 ($389)
50,000 $138 ($103.50) $230 ($172.50) Not published (Starter cap is 25,000) $759 ($609)
100,000 $242 ($181.50) $403 ($302.25) Not published $1,499 ($1,199)

Official Zoho Campaigns Free remains $0 if you stay within 2,000 contacts and 2,000 emails a month. Official Professional continues past 100,000 contacts in the official file (for example, $748 a month or $561 yearly-billed at 200,000, and $1,380 or $1,035 yearly-billed at 500,000). Official ActiveCampaign Pro and Enterprise catalog prices at 1,000 contacts were $99 / $79 and $179 / $145 yearly-billed.

How to use the table without forcing a false tie:

  • Official Zoho Campaigns is the cheaper published email ladder at every overlapping step we recorded, especially official Standard. That is a rate-card fact, not a verdict that Standard includes official ActiveCampaign Plus or Pro items.
  • Official Zoho Campaigns Standard advertises unlimited email sends. Official ActiveCampaign Starter and Plus advertise a 10× send cap. Confirm live terms.
  • Official Zoho Campaigns Free (2,000 contacts, 2,000 emails a month, 5 users) is a published free plan. Official ActiveCampaign had none on the page we checked.
  • Official ActiveCampaign Plus is a different published package (landing pages, generative AI, CRM/SMS add-ons) at a higher official price.

Other official alternatives people compare

These are official starting points, not a ranked list:

  • Mailchimp: official Free at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month; Essentials $13 and Standard $20 at 500 contacts. There is no official paid Mailchimp row at exactly 1,000 contacts. See Mailchimp alternatives.
  • MailerLite: official Free at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails; Comfort $12 ($10.80 yearly-billed) at 500 subscribers, and $19 ($17.10) at 1,000. See ActiveCampaign vs MailerLite.
  • GetResponse: official Starter $19 or $15.58 annually at 1,000 subscribers, with unlimited monthly sends. See ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse.
  • Brevo: official Starter $9 a month or $97 a year, from 5,000 emails a month. See ActiveCampaign vs Brevo.

What this page will not do

We do not invent Zoho CRM or Zoho Marketing Automation prices we could not extract. We do not treat ActiveCampaign as Zoho One. We do not invent testimonials, star ratings, or a long-term test of deliverability. We do not fill in official price rows that the catalogs do not publish.

FAQ

Is ActiveCampaign cheaper than Zoho Campaigns?

Not on the official email rate cards we recorded. Official Zoho Campaigns Standard and Professional sit below official ActiveCampaign Starter and Plus at the overlapping contact steps in the table above. Official ActiveCampaign Plus and Pro still publish a different feature grid, including CRM and SMS add-ons from Plus upward. Compare the official row you would actually buy, including send caps and whether you need a Zoho-family product that this page does not price.

Does Zoho Campaigns have a free plan?

Yes. Official Free is up to 2,000 contacts and 2,000 emails a month, with 5 users and the official Free inclusions listed on the pricing page. Official ActiveCampaign did not publish a free plan on the pricing page we checked.

Is ActiveCampaign an alternative to Zoho CRM?

Only in a narrow sense. Official ActiveCampaign publishes CRM add-ons on Plus, Pro, and Enterprise, not on Starter. Official Zoho CRM is a separate Zoho product. We did not extract official Zoho CRM prices here, and we are not treating ActiveCampaign as a full Zoho CRM or Zoho One replacement.

Did you test these tools hands-on?

No. This is a dated comparison of official pricing pages and catalogs.

Sources and method

Checked November 14, 2026 (America/Denver):

Related: ActiveCampaign pricing, ActiveCampaign alternatives, ActiveCampaign CRM, ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot, ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse.

If a later official change conflicts with this snapshot, the official page wins.

Related guides